the good 2 grow photo blog

2007-05-17T18:55:00.000Z

Hello - I now blog here. Come over for some hyssop tea?

2007-04-01T18:12:00.000Z

Two views of Dead Eye taken on different days last week:

2007-03-24T18:47:00.000Z

What 'er indoors has been doing while she's been ...errr...indoors:

Meanwhile, this is my own composition:

Be nice, that was my best swede.

2007-03-21T12:53:00.000Z

Some greenhouse scenes, in March, waiting for the great leap forward:

2007-03-04T06:26:00.000Z

Lunch: from plot to plate in ten minutes!

That white blur is Venus. 23 million miles away. TWENTY THREE MILLION MILES!

Hard at work again.

2007-02-20T12:31:00.000Z

A trip to the Lake District and some new things to point my camera at:

2007-02-09T16:30:00.000Z

Finally, some snow.

2007-02-04T16:57:00.000Z

Some images from a winter weekend walk in the hills near home:

2007-01-31T18:48:00.000Z

It must be nearly February. I have swede, sprouts and kale in abundance - but not a lot else. The leeks didn't get sown in sufficient numbers and the warm autumn made all but one of the purple sprouting brocolli crop far too early. The bunching onions have been a revelation, however. I've got maybe 150 when stored maincrop onions are a mere memory. Admittedly the shallots are still ok and there's garlic galore from store, but bunching onions supplemented by leeks = year round onions.

This is sprout Rubine. They taste even better than they look - even the 'tops' are like a sweet kale.

2007-01-20T15:57:00.000Z

After the flood... these pictures are taken from pretty much the same spot - in summer...

...and yesterday...

The local fauna has changed too. From contented cows to... contented beasts of the water:

2007-01-20T15:54:00.000Z

On the menu this week: kale, brocolli and cauliflower. This may be regarded as a form of torture in some parts. But kale with plenty of garlic and a little lemon juice is seasonal eating chez-nous.

2007-01-20T15:49:00.000Z

It feels like another planet from the perspective of a windy, hail-y and increasingly cold January...but these are some of my late summer pickings...

Yu Choy! At long last a couple of plants got to the table without bolting or being obliterated by slugs. A brassica with tender stems the shape of very slender rhubarb.

Winter Squash. Unfortunately all eaten now...

Romanesco calabrese thing! 'Veronica' I think...

The last of the chillies and tomatoes picked in late October... I sowed some more today.

2006-09-06T05:11:00.000Z

Sadly, the last of the red currants. We've been using these in the juicer: mixed with a couple of apples. The kids like the resulting juice so much I've invested in three more bushes!

2006-09-03T17:55:00.000Z

Pizza for our evening meal today: all this lot went in plus home-grown onions, garlic and pepper. Providing for the family at this time of year is as easy as falling off a log. Wonder how they'll feel about nettle soup in April?

The tomatoes are big, but the aubergines are tiny - the remnants of a patio specimen tattered by the recent downpours...

2006-08-26T16:13:00.000Z

One week, six tonnes of top soil, four tonnes of gravel and some autumn crops.

Bunching onions to the fore.

An optimistic late sowing of runner beans growing over the arch, to be replaced by kiwis in November.

This bed was constructed earlier in the summer, and is already a jungle of borage, tomatoes (provenance unknown), asparagus peas, fennel (also unintended) and marjoram.

2006-08-14T18:25:00.000Z

Along with purple french beans, garlic and herbs this lot went into the mix with some barley cous cous. The aubergine was delicious and the onions, well, I grew them from seed rather than sets, which makes them a rare delicacy around here.

2006-08-08T07:30:00.000Z

My first aubergine. In fact there are now six - four black beauty and two tres hative de barbentane. The only thing I can think that I've done differently this year is to plant them in pots and neglect them...

2006-08-01T06:16:00.000Z

At last, some rain...the pump in the allotment had dried up, the seedlings hardening off couldn't wait a moment longer.

2006-07-29T07:58:00.000Z

What is this flower?

2006-07-29T07:42:00.000Z

I found Tansy growing in a local hedgerow:

I've tried for the last three years to germinate this seed in my greehouse with no success!

2006-07-29T07:19:00.000Z

This is a selection of yesterday's harvest: a few beans from my paltry climbing beans, a leaf or two from some kales, summer sprouting brocolli, courgette Tempra and a bunching onion Shimonita:

The bunching onion was great to cook with - like a huge welsh onion but with a texture only slightly coarser than a spring onion. Unfortunately, due to the intervention of our two year old, I only have a few more reaching maturity...but have about a hundred in pots awaiting planting out. If they are winter hardy I'd go as far as to say that they will replace bulb onions, especially those ridiculous sets, in my allotment in future.

2006-07-23T06:34:00.000Z

There were no long distance views of merit on last night's walk - too much heat haze...but some interesting detail. I think this is Meadow Cranesbill:

There are a couple of small fields in the washlands area which are never cut and are full of cranesbill and meadowsweet (and nettles) at this time of year:

There are some nice bits of old and redundant field architecture:

And always a tree or two to appreciate...

2006-07-23T06:13:00.000Z

The greenhouse crops have been almost problem free this year and (so far) I've managed to grow a decent number of chilli peppers, and regular peppers are on their way too...

And the tomatoes are starting to turn red:

Unfortunately, despite into growing big, healthy plants and flowering abundantly, the aubergines just will not set fruit. File under 'maybe next year'...

2006-07-21T09:09:00.000Z

This heat wave is useful for getting onions dry - these are some over-wintered onions (about a third of a good harvest) by night:

Next year I'm only going to dry and string half of them, the Japanese onions store ok for a few months; longer, but losing some texture, if sun-dried.

2006-07-21T08:57:00.000Z

These are some more views from evening walks - all taken with Moss asleep in the papoose and Lucy up to no good...

This is the Aire looking pretty (for the last time?):

The path by the river with a distant view forward to the valley of Lumb Clough Beck above Sutton:

Fiddler Hill:

Skipton Moor:

Time we were home:

2006-07-20T13:55:00.000Z

A bit of rain this morning - as forecast - so I brought the alliums in. They are now in the hands of a proficient stringer upper...

The courgette glut is imminent. Today's photogenic variety is Bolognese - I wonder if the kids will notice that courgette has been a component of every evening meal this week if I keep using different varieties...? Or, perhaps: "Tonight we are eating marrow."

The chilli pepper is Piccante di Cayenna of which I will soon have a great many.

2006-07-19T16:04:00.000Z

I have managed to break at least three hand forks in as many years...the last one was quite expensive too. Each time they broke just above the handle after a few months-worth of weeding. So this time I've bought a very expensive one:

It's very robust and it cost £25! It's made by Sneeboer which is Dutch for 'you've more money than sense'... but I'm sure it will be perfect - until I lose the thing...

2006-07-19T05:09:00.000Z

Still very hot, so Lucy, Moss and I headed upwards to escape the heat. We headed up Netherghyll (the Lothersale road) to Hen Gill Bridge and Stockshott Lane.

The path to the hills, Cononley:

Some shade...

The view from Stockshott lane was almost as good as the cool breeze. This is the view down the Aire Valley towards Keighley:

Towards Ickornshaw Moor and Boulsworth Hill:

And, on the descent, to Gib Hill:

2006-07-18T12:32:00.000Z

This is today's harvest. Does this qualify as a strawberry glut ?

It was difficult to arrange the cucurbits non-suggestively...cucumber crystal apple and courgette gold bush.

2006-07-18T09:05:00.000Z

Early morning in the garden and the chicory is awake (the flowers close in the dark)...
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Elsewhere the onions have been outside drying for the third consecutive night, and some are already ready to string up.
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2006-07-18T08:50:00.000Z

With so much to harvest and the heat sapping the will, July has been a pretty barren sowing month for me hitherto. Which has meant a much reduced harvest either in October, or April/ May. This year I've tried to bridge the hungry gap by sowing lots of cabbages, kale and spring/bunching onions. There's also swedes frazzling in the open ground. And there might be a small asparagus crop next May...Anyway, it's taken me this long to fully realise: harvest for now, sow for next season (at least).

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I found a few minutes early this morning to sow: sorrel, perilla and asparagus lettuce. The latter will bolt at this time of year and the resultant stem is the bit good to eat apparently. The perilla will be transplanted into the greenhouse border come winter.

The greenhouse itself was shady and cool and full of the scent of basil. No doubt it will need hosing down later to keep the temperature under control. This is the canopy formed by the tomatoes, peppers, aubergines et al:

Some seedlings - golden purslane (good source of omega 6):

Lettuce Corsair:

2006-07-18T05:29:00.000Z

It was too hot to garden today (30 deg. in the shade) so Lucy, Moss and I went for our usual walk on the washlands. This is an area of meadowland subject to occasional flooding by the river Aire. In such conditions Lucy would be standing by the side of a lake stretching from Kildwick to Skipton.

A bit further on. This path continues to Dead Eye, an ox bow lake:

Some wild grasses, spared the recent haymaking...

Returning via Shady Lane (or just 'Shady' locally):